


this business of hiding

by thenewhope



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-05-20
Updated: 2009-05-20
Packaged: 2017-10-05 01:27:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/36275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thenewhope/pseuds/thenewhope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vala's voice is sweet and honest, and Sam has learned the hard way just how much trouble that kind of tone can spell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	this business of hiding

**Author's Note:**

> written for lunabee34 as part of femme_fic in May 2009.

Sam is only two sips into her second cup of coffee when Rodney tracks her down in the Gateroom. He doesn't even say good morning, just launches into a long spiel about how she should just go ahead and clear the laundry list of tests he put a request in for 20 minutes ago so that he can get on with the very important business of saving the universe.

Sam takes her third sip of coffee and does her best to ignore him, glad for the distraction of the arrival of a new crew from the SGC.

"Oh, God." Rodney's eyes widen as the last travelers step through the gate just before the event horizon disappears, and his voice slips from serious business into a whine. "Who invited her?"

On the lower level, Vala looks up and spots them. A grin spreads across her face as she pushes through the small crowd and takes the steps into the gate room two at a time. She stops two steps from the top, spreads her arms wide and says in an overly loud voice; "Lucy, I'm Home."

"Um," Next to Sam, Rodney makes a strangled, scoffing noise like he's just judged Vala and found her wanting. "I don't think you understand that cultural reference."

Vala tilts her head to the side and looks him up and down in a way that perfectly mirrors his tone of voice. "Sure I do," the smile that spreads over Vala's face is the one she saves for small children and particularly stupid henchmen - it's slippery and charming and completely dismissive.

Sam sighs and shifts forward a small step, placing herself in Rodney's line of sight in the hopes of distracting him from the argument she can tell he's building into. She puts on her best I'm-in-charge smile and says, "Rodney, feel free to run any tests you want on those artifacts."

"What?" It takes him a second to switch gears, but once he does his focus snaps back into place quickly. He says, "Okay, great." and rushes off faster than Sam dared hope for.

"Oah, _artifacts_." Vala's face brightens as she lets the word slide across her tongue. "Anything I would like?"

Sam sighs and rolls her eyes.

Vala grins and slings her arm around Sam's shoulder, leading them both in the direction of Sam's office. "Aw, come on Sammie," She pleads and tightens her grip a little as Sam flinches at the nickname, "I just want to look."

Sam pauses in the doorway to her office, shrugging off Vala's arm and turning to look at her. "_No_."

"Worth a shot." Vala shrugs, her smile not faltering for a second. She cocks her head toward the hallway that leads towards the elevators and the rest of the city. "It's lunch time here, right? Wanna grab a bite with me?"

"Sorry, but I need to get some stuff done." Sam says, and moves into her office to help underscore her point. "I can have someone show you to your guest quarters though."

Vala stays still for a moment, and Sam can't help but grow a little uncomfortable under the force of her gaze. Finally, Vala shrugs and smiles again.

"Don't worry," Vala says in a way that makes Sam do exactly that, "I'm sure I can find your quarters on my own." She turns and wanders away from Sam's office.

Sam just stands there and watches her go.

*  
Hours later, Sam gets a call on the comm. from Vala inviting her for a late dinner in the mess hall with, as Vala puts it, "some good friends". Sam begs off, blaming her never-ending pile of work.

Sam is still wondering a) who Vala conned the comm. unit off of, and b) what Vala is bribing people with to be making friends so quickly, when she finally runs out of steam and decides to head to bed a while later.

She opens the door to her quarters expecting the noise and excitement that follow Vala everywhere she goes. Instead she's greeted by peaceful silence and a slice of not-quite-pecan pie on the table next to her bed. There's a note there from Vala about some clandestine poker game that Sam does her best to forget about the moment she's read it.

It's a nice surprise, and Sam falls asleep smiling for the first time in too long.

*

"I'm impressed, really I am."

Vala's voice is sweet and honest, and it stops Sam short in the hallway outside of one of Atlantis's training rooms. Sam has learned the hard way just how much trouble that kind of tone can spell, and even though she's got a list of things she needs to get done before her first meeting of the morning, she figures she should probably put a stop to whatever Vala has planned before it even gets started.

Sam is a little surprised to find a small crowd gathered inside the training room, though she's not surprised to find Vala at the center of it. That Lt. Colonel Sheppard is right there next to her isn't as surprising as Sam would like it to be either.

"You're really very good at this, you know." Vala speaks again, eyes focused on Sheppard's face as they face off across the training floor. They're both balanced on one leg, with one arm behind their backs and a baton in their other hand. Sheppard's body language is tight and ready, and the contrast with Vala's super relaxed pose is almost comical.

"Thanks." Sheppard says, his chest puffing up at the compliment. He twirls the training baton through the fingers of his left hand, a move Sam feels sure Teyla showed him. His chest grows even more at the appreciative little "O" Vala mouths in response.

They both move at the same time, a blur of well calculated movements on both their parts. Sam shifts forward a little to get a better sight line, her eyes tracking Vala's movements as she narrowly steps away from John's powerful lunge.

In the brief second that their backs are turned to each other, Vala's spine straightens and her shoulders even out into a fully prepared fighting stance - she executes a neat little spin to face Sheppard's new location, just as he makes a wider turn of his own. Vala's shoulders loosen up again instantly, dropping her guard to a more vulnerable level. John takes in her stance, and the frustration on his face drains into a smile.

Vala takes a moment to blow a wisp of hair out of her eyes. "Have you boys shown Colonel Carter this game?" she asks Sheppard and the gathered crowd, which seems to be mostly made up of Marines.

Confusion flashes across Sheppard's features for a brief second, but in the next Vala's balance goes off a bit, and she wobbles in her one-legged stance. John reacts to her movement swiftly, and his soft "Nope," is almost lost in the rush of his lunge toward her and the resulting clatter of her baton hitting the floor.

"Really?" Vala asks as she hops back into a position facing him, and she looks for all the world like she's more concerned with their conversation than with finding herself weaponless.

From her vantage point, Sam watches as Vala shifts the arm she has sequestered behind her back slightly, pressing the shadow at the small of her back closer to her left side and her free hand. Sam's shoulders tense in anticipation of Vala's next move, her lips curving into just the slightest of smirks.

John just watches her, a triumphant grin spreading across his face.

Vala cocks her head slightly, smiles and says, "You should show her sometime - I think she'd like it."

Vala moves then, fast enough that Sheppard doesn't have much of a chance to see her coming. Her left hand grabs something from the waist band of her pants as she moves toward him, and it's all he can do to hop backward out of her reach. Her arm flares out towards him as Sheppard raises his baton to fend her off only to have the wooden staff be cut in two by the weapon in Vala's hand.

Sheppard's incredulous "What the hell?" gets swallowed up in a grunt as Vala follows through with a full body slam that sends him flying into the bulkhead furthest from Sam's position and leaves her standing with both feet planted firmly on the floor.

"Sam would definitely love this game," Vala grins and twirls Sheppard's bright green flag around her left hand.

Sheppard stares at her from his place on the floor, his mouth open and his brows drawn.

Sam does her best to swallow her chuckle at the shocked look on his face.

"What?" Vala asks, the picture of innocence and virtue. There's a spark growing deep in her eyes, and Sam can't help but appreciate the way it lights up her whole face. "I don't remember there being anything in the rules about back-up weapons being banned."

"That's because I didn't tell you the rules." Sheppard is out of breath and annoyed as he pushes himself back up into a standing position, and the muscles around his jaw are tight under his four o'clock shadow.

"Exactly." Vala says and grins and pecks Sheppard on the cheek.

Vala turns towards the gathered crowd and grins as she takes in their praise and laughter. Sam chuckles and ducks her head, heading back out the door and on her way. She can't shake off a smile for the rest of the morning.

*

This time when Vala invites her to lunch over the comm. Sam can hear laughing voices mixed in with the static. She recognizes Lt. Cadman and Major Lorne and possibly Dr. Gloade from Archeology before she's able to convice Vala to stop calling her so she can get some work done.

A young Marine shows up at her office door with a sheepish smile and a tray of food 20 minutes later. There's another note from Vala, and Sam decides it might be a good idea to just not read it this time.

Sam hasn't had anything but coffee since the night before, so the surprise of food is a happy one. She grabs the packaged sandwhich and bottle of water and heads toward her office's private balcony. She leaves her comm. unit on her desk.

*

"You don't have to do this, you know." Vala says from somewhere behind Sam's left shoulder a few minutes after she's finished eating. Vala's voice is a sharp, rasping contrast to the far-away rhythm of the ocean pressing against Atlantis's piers.

Sam's not surprised by Vala's sudden presence, - she doesn't think Vala's ever been quiet a day in her life, and tonight is certainly no different - but she sucks in the smallest of gasps just the same. She tightens her fingers against the balcony's railing, and the cold metal is a harsh brace against the exhaustion that threatens to spill into her muscles.

"Hmm?" Sam asks, hoping to feign ignorance or at the very least deafness. She keeps her eyes pointed seaward, starring at the pale blue nothingness of the late-afternoon sky.

"There's no need for this," Vala moves to stand next to her on the balcony, her back to the ocean and her hip pressed against Sam's side. Sam knows without looking that Vala will have immediately found a way to lounge both comfortably and alluringly against the railing.

There's a pattern to a conversation like this, a natural give-and-take to their lines. Sam's not sure she's up for the game of it, but she opens her mouth to ask _'for what?'_ out of a habit born of long days and nights spent with the woman next to her.

Vala beats her to it though, jumps over Sam's line and onto her next. "This hiding business," Vala says, and gives Sam's side a little bump-nudge-be-quite-thing with her hip. "It's completely ridiculous, not to mention silly."

"And?" Sam asks, because this is the part where she can choose to actually talk, or to play along with the light in Vala's eyes and the implied ellipsis in her voice. She goes for the later, because it's easiest and because it'll make Vala happy.

"And I'm not overly fond of it." The shrug Vala gives in response to Sam's disbelieving look is not at all sheepish. And that's enough to get Sam smiling just a little.

"I'll keep that in mind for the future," Sam lets her voice drop down into mock seriousness, and gets another hip nudge for her efforts.

"They're not going to bite." Vala says, nodding towards the wide, clear windows that look into the bustling gate room. Sam sighs - this is the part where she _does_ have to talk about it.

"I know," Sam says, because she _does_ know. She's just not sure what else she can say.

Vala knows her well, well enough to take her silence as its own statement. Well enough to keep the conversation going once she's made her point. "And I only bite when you ask me to."

Sam can see Vala's sly grin from the corner of her eye, and now she's the one doing the hip nudging.

"Don't act like you don't like it!" Vala says with mock indignation, and now Sam's grinning a little bit too.

Sam pushes away from the railing and turns back towards Vala and Atlantis behind her. She takes a deep breath, only to have it knocked out of her as Vala folds her into a deep bear hug.

It catches Sam off guard, but in the best of ways. She hugs Vala back and whispers, "Thanks."

Vala pulls back and shrugs. "Of course," She grins and tugs Sam back toward the office and the city.

*


End file.
